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SatLeo Labs puts India's first commercial thermal imaging payload in orbit
The Ahmedabad startup's TAPAS-1 flew on SpaceX's Transporter-18. It wants to measure urban heat, landfill fires and crop stress from space, and says it has about $52 million in letters of intent.
Most Earth observation satellites take pictures in visible light. SatLeo Labs wants to measure heat. On 1 October, the Ahmedabad startup's first payload, TAPAS-1, launched on SpaceX's Transporter-18 rideshare mission from Vandenberg in California, one of about 130 payloads on board, The Indian Express reported. Business Standard described it as India's first commercial thermal imaging payload in space.
What went up
TAPAS-1 is small. The Indian Express reported that it weighs 1.5 kg, was built in about 12 months and is operating in an orbit of about 500 km. An IANS report carried by The Hawk gave the weight as 3 kg; we use the figure from The Indian Express, but the two reports differ. Business Standard reported that the payload flew as part of Dhruva Space's LEAP-2 mission.
DQ reported that TAPAS-1 has a native resolution of 60 metres. That is coarse compared with optical imaging, but thermal sensors work at longer wavelengths and are typically lower resolution. What matters is that the payload can measure surface temperature across a city or a farm region.
What heat data is for
The use cases are practical. Business Standard reported that SatLeo is working on urban heat islands and on methane and fires at the Tumakuru landfill in Karnataka, and that in Ahmedabad its forecasts have come within 2 to 3 degrees Celsius. The Indian Express reported a pilot with the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation. Thermal data can also show crop water stress, industrial heat leaks and water body temperatures, all of which are hard to see in a normal photograph.
Heat is becoming a policy problem in Indian cities, and municipal heat action plans need data on which neighbourhoods are hottest and when. A commercial supply of thermal data from Indian satellites would give city governments an alternative to relying only on foreign or public research missions.
Who is behind it
SatLeo Labs was founded in 2023 by Shravan Singh Bhati, its chief executive, retired ISRO scientist Dr Ranendu Ghosh, and Urmil Bakhai, its chief strategy officer, The Indian Express reported. India Today reported that Bhati is a former Rajasthan Police officer, an unusual path into space technology. The Indian Express reported that the company has more than 40 staff.
The company is based in Ahmedabad, as The Indian Express, Business Standard and IANS report. The IANS report linked it to the Gujarat Spacetech Policy 2025 to 2030. DQ reported that SatLeo plans a manufacturing facility near Ahmedabad.
The constellation plan
TAPAS-1 is a demonstrator. The Indian Express reported that SatLeo plans eight more satellites by 2029 and that a constellation called PYRO will have 10 to 15 microsatellites. Business Standard also reported a constellation of 10 to 15 satellites by 2029. DQ reported that each PYRO satellite will weigh about 150 kg, with resolution better than 10 metres and temperature accuracy of about 1 Kelvin, a big step up from the demonstrator.
The next step is TAPAS-2. The Indian Express reported it is planned for April or May next year, while Business Standard reported mid-2027. Both point to roughly the same window.
The money
The Indian Express reported that SatLeo has secured Rs 60 crore in funding and holds letters of intent worth about $52 million, with about 60% from customers outside India. Business Standard reported LOIs of about $52 million from seven to eight customers. DQ noted that these letters are non-binding and that the company plans a Series A round.
That caveat matters. Letters of intent show demand, but they are not contracts. A $52 million pipeline against a satellite that has just reached orbit means SatLeo now has to prove that TAPAS-1 data is accurate enough for paying customers.
What to watch
The first test is simple: does TAPAS-1 return usable thermal images, and do the temperatures match ground measurements? After that, the questions are whether any LOIs turn into contracts, whether the Series A closes and whether TAPAS-2 flies on schedule. If they do, SatLeo will be one of the first Indian startups to sell a type of Earth observation data that India has so far mostly bought from abroad.
